The 2014 Game Developers Conference is happening next week, March 17-21 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, which means we're just days away from the year's premiere conference for game industry professionals.

While you're putting together your session schedule in the Schedule Builder, don't forget to set some time aside to check out the variety of lounges, exhibits, and other events that will be happening across the Moscone Center throughout the week.

Highlights include:

Mild Rumpus: On the ground floor of Moscone West, take a moment to relax and enjoy beautifully soothing indie videogames in comfort approaching that of your own living room. Throughout the week, the Mild Rumpus welcomes you into a sofa-filled sanctuary of videogame tranquility alongside a scattering of live performances and bean-bags the size of a small house. You can even charge your telephone.

Deathmatch with John Romero: GDC presents an 8-person "Deathmatch with John" dedicated PC cluster, with equipment provided by The MADE, in a dedicated lounge area on the second floor of Moscone West. All matches will end at a specific frag count, the next in line can take over the losing computer, and John Romero himself will be dropping by at regular intervals to play a few rounds of classic Doom deathmatch.

Doing It On The Table: On the third floor of Moscone West, the Doing It On The Table exhibit -- curated by Eric Zimmerman -- celebrates tabletop games created by videogame designers. You can meet the designers themselves on Tuesday from 4-4:30 PM, but you can stop by anytime to check out the games in a cozy lounge where you can relax and kick it with some face-to-face gameplay.

alt.ctrl.GDC Exhibit:alt.ctrl.GDC is a new exhibit in the North Hall that showcases the outer fringe of exciting alternative control methods for games, from musical keyboards to VR helmets. Developers will be on-hand to discuss their creations, coupled with new games for attendees to try.

Indie MEGABOOTH Showcase: Don't miss the Indie MEGABOOTH Showcase, an exhibit of 15 hand-picked indie games on the third floor of Moscone West. The MEGABOOTH exists to support indie developers and help pool their resources to enable them to showcase their work prominently, despite not having access to publisher support, and this year they're coming to GDC 2014.

GDC's Table Draw: The third floor of Moscone West will also host GDC's Table Draw exhibit, a space for you to unleash your creativity with Wacom Technology's complete line of professional pen tablets and interactive pen displays for designers, animators and artists.

Videogame History Museum: After last year's highly-acclaimed "History of Sega" exhibit, the Videogame History Museum will turn the tables this year and present "The History of Nintendo" in the lower lobby of Moscone North. From all of the basics to some of the most obscure Nintendo items ever displayed, they'll all be at the Videogame History Museum exhibit. Take a break and come check out the display, or just play a few games in the mini-arcade.

You've Got Game Show: The lower lobby of Moscone North will host iam8bit's YOU'VE GOT GAME SHOW!, a rapid-fire competition experience that pits three contestants against one another in a bloody skirmish of nerdy knowledge, taking just 5 minutes to win (or lose) it all. Stop by to catch a show, join in the fun and compete for goofy prizes.

One Life Left: A sweet blend of light-hearted discussion, game-related music, interviews and ridiculous features, the One Life Left podcast, featuring game industry legends past and present, will be broadcasting all week from the lower lobby of Moscone North. Hosted by Ste Curran, Ann Scantlebury and Simon Byron, One Life Left at GDC will be featured on Gamasutra and broadcast on London's Resonance 104.4 FM. It's not exactly interactive unless you aim to cause a ruckus, but it should still be fun to watch.

These events and more should offer attendees plenty of stuff to stop and check out between sessions. For more information on the many sessions and talks that are part of the show's lineup, do check out GDC 2014's official Schedule Builder.